Two Elements of Islay

This week our local whisky club, Malt Mongers Israel got together for our monthly meeting. The theme this time was Elements of Islay, a series of “undisclosed” single malts from Islay put out by independent bottler Specialty Drinks. They’re modeled after elements of the periodic table with each element’s symbol hinting at the source of the whisky inside. If one goes over to their website they usually provide more information about each bottle to varying degrees.

They also put out a blended malt as part of the series simply titled “Peat” which I have reviewed before. This would be the first time I’m trying their single malt offerings because they are quite pricey and only half liter bottles, so not something I’d be likely to buy and thus encounter outside of a tasting.

I took notes for the Bn6, an NAS Bunnahabhain and Lp7 an 18 year old Laphroaig distilled in 1998 (albeit not from the legendary series of refill sherry casks of that same year).

This was interesting, definitely has some sherry influence which always works well with a Bunnahabhain. It was quite soft and approachable and adding some water brought out a few lactic notes reminiscent of a sherried Bruichladdich.

This was a really lovely one. It had all these wonderful, warm herbal notes that come to a Laphroaig with some age and a really nice fruity character from the casks backing that up. Really a stunning dram.